Eve Nunez’s life was turned upside down in 1969, when she was raped. She was only 14.
When Nunez became pregnant, a relative encouraged her to have an abortion, concerned that her pregnancy would bring shame to the family. Nunez chose life.
“I had a grandma that passed away when I was 6,” Nunez says, “and she always taught me the importance … of wanting to live, and the importance of life.”
More than 50 years after giving birth to her son, Nunez continues to act on behalf of the unborn.
Today, she is a minister and an advocate for life who volunteers her time and resources to help women facing crisis pregnancies.
Nunez joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share her story and why she is so committed to standing for life.
Also on today’s show, we cover these stories:
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi begins her trip to Asia, which may include Taiwan despite China’s fierce objections.
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis encourages his state agencies to ignore directives from the U.S. Department of Education.
- Kansas voters head to the polls to vote on an abortion-related amendment to the state constitution.
Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript:
Virginia Allen: It is my pleasure to welcome to the show today the Rev. Eve Nunez. She is the founder and president of Help 4 Kidz and is the president of the National Latina/Latino Commission, which is a nonprofit agency dedicated to mentoring youth. She is also the recipient of the National Service Award from then-President George W. Bush and the Volunteer Service Award from then-President Barack Obama.
Reverend Eve, thank you for being here today.
Eve Nunez: What a privilege to be here, Virginia. And thank you for the invite.
Allen: Oh my goodness. We are just so excited to have this conversation. When I heard just a little bit of your story, I was really blown away.
Of course, we’re at a moment in history where everyone is talking about the life issue and about abortion and Roe v. Wade has just been overturned. This is an issue that began touching your life in a really personal way when you were just 15 years old. Could you share just a little bit of your own story?
Nunez: I would love to, but first, I have to say that the day that it was overturned, I had to go to the Supreme Court because for over 40 years I was there crying, praying. My children and grandchildren would go and pray with me during all times of the year. And I just had to go back. And I remember that morning, like at 10 when I heard the news, it was like, “I have to go thank Jesus.”
Allen: Wow.
Nunez: I didn’t want to be one of those lepers. He healed 10 and only two came back. So I wanted to be one of the first ones to go back and thank him. So I do want to say that first. I want to thank Jesus for that miracle.
Allen: Yeah, yeah.
Nunez: And I had been an advocate for life my whole life. I was raped at 14 when I was a sophomore in high school and I was not a Christian, but I had Jewish grandparents and parents that taught me the important of life.
My name is Eve, which means life giver. And when that happened to me, when I went through that trauma, being raped and going to high school, which was like in 1969 and 14 years old, I had my whole life and I loved school and everything was turned upside down. I decided when I found out I was pregnant that I was going to keep the baby.
The young man that raped me that was about 10 years older than me only did six months in jail for statutory rape. And those were our laws back then. And I couldn’t go back to high school.
I loved high school. I just wanted to finish high school. And I couldn’t. It’s like my whole world was turned upside down, but I was willing to give anything up. I was not going to give the baby up.
I did have an aunt at the time that was not Jewish that married my uncle that was and said, “We need to take you to Mexico to abort this baby.” And I said, “I’m not going to abort this baby. I’m going to keep this baby.” And she said, “Well, you’ll bring shame to the family.” And I said, “I won’t to my Jewish family.”
Allen: Wow. What year was this?
Nunez: 1969. So I said, “I won’t.” So my dad took me to California and took care of me and kind of hid me from the one family member that wanted me to have an abortion.
And it was tough. It was really hard to be 14 years old and pregnant and delivering a baby at 15. But I’m so glad that I fought because my son is the biggest blessing.
But you just have to disappear in the early ’60s, late ’60s. You just disappear. You just can’t go to school. You can’t be around a lot of the friends you grew up with. You just have to kind of hide.
Allen: What were the thoughts and feelings that were running through your mind as you’re a teenager and you’re watching your stomach get bigger and bigger and bigger and your body’s changing?
Nunez: Well, I can always remember my grandma. I had a grandma that passed away when I was 6 and she always taught me the importance because Jewish people had gone through the Holocaust and died. And she taught me the importance of wanting to live and the importance life had.
Had I not been taught that at the age of 5, 6, 7, and 8—I was 10 years old when my great grandma passed away. And I would always remember, you just have to live. Your name is important, but the importance of life as a young Jewish girl made me realize that God was trusting me, even though it was something horrible, a crime had been committed against me.
I was determined because of what my dad taught me, what my great grandma taught me, my parents, the importance of life. And I was willing to suffer the consequences of not seeing my friends, not being able to go back to school.
I had to choose an alternative education. So my dad took me to a school where I, a cooking school, where I was able to go to cooking school and became a chef, went through three years. But during this whole time it was, I had a child. And my dad helped me raise my child, my family did. But it was very hard, but I chose.
So I tell this story, Virginia, to young ladies. I’ve been saying this for over 40 years. It was maybe like 1978, my son was born in 1970, but I remember going on the streets and sharing my story, saying, “It’s a blessing. You can’t kill.” And I wasn’t even a Christian at the time. I got saved later, but I even remember advocating for life before I knew Jesus.
But once I knew Jesus, I had that fire within me … and then I had the word of God that I could share the importance.
One of my favorite ones is Psalms 8. That says, “Out the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has ordained strength because of our enemies, thou has mightest still the enemy and the avenger and the Lord has perfected praise in the mouth of babes and sucklings.” That means in our womb, in our stomach, they’re being perfected by the lord.
And so when I began to hear the word and the importance of life, and thou shall not kill, the enemy comes to kill steal and to destroy, I mean, life—who’s going to protect those innocent children, those babies? Had I not chosen that, I wouldn’t have had one of the biggest blessings in my life, a son that loves me.
And so I’ve been able to tell that story.
In fact, I went on, I think, May 2 outside of the Supreme Court when there was maybe five of us pro-lifers against a mob, hundreds of protesters. And we just prayed. In fact, the crowds have gotten very dangerous at times. I literally have gone out there just with the armor of God and to say, “God, really protect me,” because people can be very violent.
And the Capitol Police said, “The people that were here before you, about a dozen of them all got beat up. Are you sure you want to stay here?” And I said, “Yes, because if we can even save one life.” And I was able to talk to some of the young ladies who were talking about, “This is my body,” and I just begin to tell my story, “But there’s a baby in there.”
Allen: Yeah. How do those on the pro-abortion side respond? When you share your story, when you say, “I was raped at 14 and I chose to have that child, I chose life,” what do they say to that?
Nunez: They’ll listen for a few minutes. And it’s like, they’re first, they’re very angry and they’ll listen. It’s like, I get their attention for a couple minutes. And, “Well, I can’t do what you did. And this is my body and I don’t want to be pregnant.” But it calms them down for a few minutes.
They’re very angry and they’ll cuss a lot. Say a lot of words. And in fact, one last told me, when I was [there] May 2, “What if I have an abortion? Will you still love me?” I said, “I will love you, but don’t have an abortion. Give me your baby. I’ll take care of you, take care of your baby.”
And one thing I tell them is one thing that I’m praying the faith-based community does more of is that we adopt more babies. That we not only tell young ladies, “Don’t abort your babies,” but care for them during their abortion.
And I can tell you, there’s two girls out there named Eve that I brought into my home and took care of. An 18-year-old and a 2-year-old that I was able to help.
There was a young lady that was going in Arizona to an abortion clinic. And I drove around in my car while I was doing outreach until I changed her mind, buying her ice cream and everything.
And she said, “My dad’s going to kill me”—they were from American Samoa—”if he finds out I’m pregnant.” And I said, “Well, I will take care of you.” And she says, “Well, will you take care of my family, too?” She just didn’t tell me she had like 10 Samoans in her family. So I brought them all in and I took care of the whole family and helped her through school.
She had her baby, and her baby’s named Eve, that lived. But it was one of those sacrifices. I just didn’t have to take care of the mother and her baby, but the whole family. And I took them in and I did it again. So there’s two babies alive today.
I pray, Virginia, that more than two babies have been saved with over 40 years of advocacy, that more have listened, because I’m always out there. And not only during the pro-life marches, every time I get an opportunity, I share the importance of life.
Allen: Reverend Eve, I think that what you’re saying is such a rallying cry for the whole pro-life movement right now, because while you’re going out and you’re advocating for life and speaking to individuals, you’re then willing to bring people into your own home that need that support. That you’re putting action behind what you believe, that takes a lot of courage and a lot of boldness, it takes time, it takes money, it takes dedication. That’s incredible.
Nunez: And a lot of patience to bring families in and mothers … But you know what? It wasn’t only me. It was my family. I thank the lord for my children that were, they’re never selfish. They were always thinking about others that have lived in my home.
I’ve had many, many children live in my home and many single young mothers. But I believe that had I not had the family God gave me, that they never complained about having to give their bed up, having to give their room up, share their socks or clothes and stuff—but God really blessed me with a wonderful family.
And I thank the lord for my youngest daughter also, Hannah, who has helped so much and would get shoe boxes and would go with me and buy socks and underwear for these children. We would have 10, 12, 15 in our home at a time.
But to have a family that loved, also had compassion, and they never felt inconvenienced—in fact, I was thanking the lord for them today. I said, “I could only do what I do … and help save lives because of the children the lord gave me.”
Allen: Yeah, yeah. Obviously, right now, we’re having conversations at this moment in history like really never before about these kinds of topics, about policymakers are making decisions about abortion laws. And we’ve seen recently in the news the story of a 10-year-old girl from Ohio who was raped and then got an abortion and there’s really challenging, hard conversations taking place.
What is sort of your insight, your advice, your wisdom for how with a heart full of compassion we can talk about some of these really, really challenging things and come up also with policy solutions that protect life?
Nunez: Well, a doctor told me when I was 14, “This could risk your life. You’re too young to have this baby.” And I said, “Well, I choose for you to save the baby’s life.” I was 14 years old. And I said, “If it ever comes to the point where it’s me or the baby, the baby has to live.”
Allen: Where did that conviction come from at the age of 14?
Nunez: From my grandma. I had a grandma that was Jewish that taught the importance of living. And I spent a lot of time with her in Montana. And I think my parents. I’m one of 18, but I think they taught me to love. And as a Jewish woman, I just knew that we just had to live and have babies. We had to multiply.
Allen: OK.
Nunez: When you lose over 6 million people in a Holocaust, and you’re just taught the importance of life and do everything. And I thank the lord that I chose that.
But with these laws that are passing—Isaiah 10:1 says “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which have they have prescribed in their writing.”
We have lawmakers and policymakers are writing laws about the life of a child and decreeing death instead of life. Jesus came to give life and to give life more abundantly. And he’s a giver of life. And who are these lawmakers? Who do they think they are saying they can take life?
And then … Planned Parenthood has been selling baby body parts. I pray for David [Daleiden] a lot. I think he’s that journalist that they want to call him a felon and give him all types of felonies because he exposed Planned Parenthood when they were plotting and selling baby body parts. And I say, “Oh my God, have mercy on us. Forgive us.”
And now with them wanting to codify abortion to where the baby up to the time of birth, a full born baby, can be murdered and torn apart. And I’m just saying, “Lord, that’s torture.”
I mean, it just breaks my heart that people can be so evil is a word and corrupt minds to allow that to happen to a baby. I’m saying we need to have more people rise up and speak up and pray more. I’ve been praying nonstop for life since—even when I wasn’t a Christian I would still say, “God help us.”
Allen: Yeah.
Nunez: That someone would want to kill a baby inside of a woman.
Allen: Yeah. Now, I’ve watched videos of you going out and you speaking with those on the pro-choice, pro-abortion side, who kind of say, “Well, you made your choice and that’s fine, and it’s fine that you made your choice, but we should be able to make our choice.” How do you kind of respond to that, especially when you’re talking about an issue as sensitive as rape?
Nunez: Well, that, I think to me, I spoke of what a blessing it was in my life and you have a choice, but the baby’s a human and the baby has a choice and the baby wants to live. I mean, I say that so many times. The baby wants to live.
Allen: Yeah.
Nunez: The baby does not want to die. The babies are inside of the womb when … those tools are going after them to rip them out of the womb and they’re moving, they’re moving away … A baby just weeks old is going away from these instruments that are going in there to tear their bodies apart.
And I’m just saying, this baby is running away from those instruments that are trying to kill them, tear them to pieces. If they could only see those ultrasounds and just see this is a baby that’s alive, this baby wants to live.
Allen: Yeah, yeah. And I know, I mean, for you, obviously, your world changed and you mentioned you had to leave your high school and I think so many women say, “Well, I’m not going to be able to pursue the dreams in my heart. I’m going to have to lay all that down if I continue with this pregnancy,” whatever the situation might be. And I mean, that’s legitimately hard, right?
Nunez: It is.
Allen: It’s hard to lay those dreams down or maybe push pause on them. What do those conversations and those dialogues look like even as you have journeyed with women who I’m sure have had to do that, to push pause on those dreams?
Nunez: And you know what, I’ve also talked to a lot of young girls that have had abortions that have talked about the trauma they’ve gone through after and the torment. It’s never right. And I tell them it’s best. And I’ve had some that have gone through abortion talk to those that are pregnant, saying, “Trust God, God will take care of you. He’ll take care of your child.” But killing a baby—and I always use “that is murder.” That is never right.
Allen: Yeah, yeah. And you obviously love the lord. You’re a Christian, Reverend Eve, [and] the lord has kind of given you a picture of what you feel like one of your roles will be in heaven. Share a little bit about that.
Nunez: Yes. Well, I want to share this Scripture. I’m going to do that. Jeremiah 1:4-5 says, “And the Lord said to Jeremiah, ‘I chose you before I gave you life. I chose you, Jeremiah, before I gave you birth. Before you were born, I chose you and I selected you to be a prophet to nations.'”
So the lord has chosen these children, every single one, before they were born. So there’s a destiny for every child. And Jeremiah is called to be a prophet to the nations. And I’m thinking of the 63 million-plus babies that have been murdered that we know of and they had a destiny.
Allen: Yeah.
Nunez: The lord knew them.
So I had a dream of the lord where the lord showed me my mansion in heaven. And as I walked into this place, my favorite room in my mansion—and I’ll say real quickly, I am a chef. So when I first walked into my mansion, there was a double gourmet kitchen, but it was a kosher kitchen. Then a regular kitchen.
Then Jesus took me to a little room that was my prayer chamber because I love to pray. It was a small room with two little candles like my Jewish grandma used to have for Shabbat and a little red velvet pillow. He showed me the bridal chamber where we’re going to minister unto Jesus and worship him forever.
But my favorite room in my mansion is, there was a big room, the clouds, there was no ceiling, and it was all glass. And when I went in there, babies were being brought to me and I was walking with Jesus. Many, many babies were being brought to me. And in heaven I get to take care of some of these aborted babies.
Allen: Wow.
Nunez: … I said, “What [are] their names?” Because there were so many. And I was just excited. Like a little girl at a little dress shop or candy store. It was my favorite room. I saw all these beautiful rooms in my mansion, but my favorite room was when babies were being brought.
And I got so many babies that I was thinking, I don’t have enough arms to hold all these babies. But Jesus says, “You get to love them.” And I thought of how many times I would go out and pray outside of abortion clinics and trying to talk mothers out of not aborting their babies and how many nights my children came in and we wept for babies to live. And I’m saying, I bet some of those babies are going to be some of the ones I get to care for and have.
And Jesus called them blessed. I said, “What are their names?” He says, “They’re blessed. And you get to love them.” He didn’t use the word “care.” He says, “You get to love them.” So I was just embracing these babies.
So I know that I’m going to have a room in my mansion, the biggest room in my mansion is to care for some of these babies.
And it’s been a battle and abortions are still happening. Babies are still being murdered. And I’m just praying that the overturn of Roe v. Wade is just the beginning of abortions stopping in America.
But more people, as myself, will be that voice, one on one, wherever you’re at. When you see somebody pregnant or somebody going to an abortion clinic, like I did, take action. Do whatever it takes to save a life.
Allen: Yeah. Tell us how we can follow your work. You are so active and such an advocate for life. How can we keep up with what you’re doing?
Nunez: Well, I do have a website called Help4Kidz.org.
Allen: Excellent. OK, great. Well, we’ll check that out, make sure to link that in the show notes. But Reverend Eve, thank you. We really appreciate you just being willing to share your story and to be such a voice and an advocate for the unborn.
Nunez: Well, I love The Heritage Foundation, the work here. I’ve been a supporter and I just thank God for all the advocacy work this organization has done. And so thank you for giving me a voice today. And I just pray that there’s someone out there that will hear this message and fight for babies, fight for life inside of the womb and outside of the womb.
Allen: Amen.
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